Personal Interests
While not playing with numbers I enjoy reading, mainly science-fiction (A.C. Clarke, Issac Assimov and Frank Herbert) and horror (H.P. Lovecraft being an obvious example), though childrens fantasy is also a favourite (yes that means Harry Potter, His Dark Materials and others).
I'm a secret lemonade drinker.
I spend my free time playing board games and roleplaying games, for many years (2006-2008) I ran the Wargames section of the Univeristy of Nottingham Roleplaying Games Society (UoN RPGSoc). During that time I organised many internal events and put teams together to play in external competitions for wargaming; as well as running and playing in many rpg games. I love the creativity of roleplay and the interaction of boardgames.
Films and series are the third love of my life (my trinity of books, films and games - a BFG if you will). I enjoy watching a variety of films, from David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome' to Ingmar Bergman's 'Seventh Seal' via Steven Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. The animated films by Studio Ghibli are also among my favourites.
Biography
Currently hold a Career Development Fellowship at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, part of the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge, working with Professor Sheila Bird on a variety of public health issues.
I completed my PhD in statistics during 2009 at the University of Nottingham's School of Mathematical Sciences, supervised by Professor Philip O'Neill. My research considered parameter inference using Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the SIR stochastic epidemic model conditioned on the final outcome of the epidemic.
From 2001-2005 I completed a taught undergraduate masters (MMath) at the University of Nottingham's School of Mathematical Sciences.